The AvGeek Action Alliance is not associated with Avelo the airline. If you're looking for plane tickets head here.
Welcome to the AvGeek Action Alliance
The avelNO! Campaign
In April 2025, a few months after Avelo signed a contract to provide detainee/deportee charter services to DHS, the AvGeek Action Alliance launched its first campaign, "avelNO!"
The goal was to call attention to the airline's actions and inform its potential commercial customers of the overlap in its operations. While pockets of outrage simmered online and occasional protests manifested near its airport operations, the avelNO! campaign pushed a (much) bigger approach.
We contracted to place billboards near Tweed New Haven Airport, the airline's largest commercial base and home to nearly 80% of its operations. The boards showed the tail of an Avelo aircraft and a stylized mockup of the logo, changing it from avelo to avelNO! It also included the text, "Does your vacation support their deportation?" raising awareness of the split services offered.
The original billboard, as displayed near HVN
That billboard led to threats of legal action and eventually actual legal action, as Avelo objected to the use of the image and logo, while we defended its fair use as free speech commentary, protected under the Lanham Act.
Owing to the legal uncertainties we were forced to change the billboards to alternate designs while awaiting court rulings and concurrently negotiating for a settlement with Avelo.
New billboards went up in December 2025 with a different design
In January 2026 Avelo announced it would no longer operate the flights, bringing the avelNO! campaign to a successful conclusion.
Ultimately a settlement was reached with Avelo, acknowledging the company's rights with respect to its branding and the rights of the AvGeek Action Alliance as protected by the First Amendment.
The fine print:
Your donations will help support our efforts to amplify our messaging around various aviation-related social justice issues. We're also open to suggestions for issues that need to be addressed.
Note: We are NOT a tax-exempt organization. Your donations are NOT tax deductible. That said, 100% of all donations will be used for the campaigns (we'll pay the the CC fees). No overhead here.
We do not collect any information about visitors to this site. If you donate to the group some information is collected by Stripe for billing purposes. We will never share, sell, rent, publicize, or otherwise do anything with that data, other than to maybe send a thank you note at some point.
The AvGeek Action Alliance is not associated with Avelo the airline. If you're looking for plane tickets head here.
